Challenger Eyes Heights Alder Seat

Shootings, trash, and potholes on Quinnipiac Avenue.

Kurtis Kearney pointed to those three social maladies — and a desire to do his part to try to address them — as his primary motivations for running for the Democratic nomination for Ward 11 alder.

Kearney, 47, is a resident of the Bella Vista apartment complex for low-income seniors and people with disabilities on the far east side of town.

The current chair of the Quinnipiac East Community Management Team and a former co-chair of the Ward 11 Democratic Ward Committee, Kearney has filed papers to run for another neighborhood-representative seat: on the Board of Alders.

Ward 11 is bounded by Foxon Hill Road to the north, Quinnipiac Avenue and Eastern Street to the west, East Grand Avenue to the south, and the East Haven town border to the east. Many of its constituents live in the five-building, 1,413-unit Bella Vista complex on Eastern Street.

The Ward 11 seat is currently occupied by two-term Democratic incumbent Renee Haywood. Haywood has not yet filed papers with the city clerk’s office to run for a third term representing Ward 11. She did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.

When asked why he’s challenging Haywood for the Democratic nomination for the Ward 11 seat, Kearney said he’s ​“throwing and seeing what sticks.” He respects Haywood, whom he described as a ​“strong woman.” But, he said, living conditions on the far east side of town have gotten rough lately — and he’d like to try to do his part on the Board of Alders to advocate for those who live in and around Bella Vista.

What’s going on in the neighborhood today?

“There’s a lot of violence in our area,” Kearney told the Independent during a Monday afternoon phone interview. There’s dumping. There’s bad sidewalks, giant potholes in the road” up and down Quinnipiac Avenue.

Kearney said that, before Covid-19, he would walk around the neighborhood every year on his birthday — June 15 — picking up trash that people had tossed on the side of Quinnipiac Avenue and elsewhere in the ward.

“We have a beautiful area; there’s just a lot of unnecessary dumping.”

As for public safety, Kearney said he and his neighbors have seen an uptick in shootings and robberies as of late. ​“I think there should be better patrolling out here, since there are random shootings,” he said.

If elected to represent Ward 11, Kearney promised to prioritize those three issues within and outside of City Hall: advocating for more police walking beats and patrols in the area, for more city-led and neighborhood-volunteer trash cleanups, and for fixes to cracks and holes along Quinnipiac Avenue. That street is already slated for a $2.7 million redo between Foxon Boulevard and Townsend Avenue as part of the city’s Major Corridors initiative.

“My Adopted Hometown, & I Love It”

While this alder campaign marks Kearney’s first run for public office, it’s not his first time pushing to make his neighborhood — and New Haven — a better place to live.

Born and raised in and around Bridgeport, Kearney said he moved to New Haven from Atlanta in 2004 when he found out he was going to have a child. ​“I don’t abandon my children,” he said about the decision to move north.

He worked in pest control at the time, he said.Then he had to leave that work when he was diagnosed with cancer. He moved into an apartment at Bella Vista in 2011.

Kearney said a turning point in his time in New Haven came about a decade ago, when one of his son’s teachers asked him what his parents did. His son said his mom was a social worker. When the teacher asked about his dad, and his son replied that he didn’t work, the teacher said, ​“So he must be on vacation all the time.”

“That kind of hurt,” Kearney recalled.

So, even while battling cancer, he threw himself into volunteer work.

He volunteered twice a week at Fort Nathan Hale Park in the East Shore, went through the Community Foundation’s Neighborhood Leadership Program, became an ambassador for Long Wharf Theatre, served as the co-chair and then the chair of the neighborhood management team starting in 2015, served as the co-chair of the neighborhood Democratic ward committee, served on the city’s Commission on Disabilities, and is currently on the tenant association and is a building representative at Bella Vista.

“This is not really my hometown,” which is Bridgeport, Kearney said. But New Haven ​“is my adopted hometown, and I love it.”

Who’s Running For What, So Far?

The City Clerk’s office is keeping a running tally on its website of which candidates have filed to run for which offices in this year’s municipal elections. See below for a full list of candidates who have filed papers to run for various local posts so far. And click here to read about key upcoming dates on the municipal election calendar.

Mayor
Justin Elicker, Democrat (incumbent)
Karen DuBois-Walton, Democrat
Mayce Torres, Democrat
Elena Grewal, Democrat (exploratory committee only)

City Clerk
Michael Smart, Democrat (incumbent)

Board of Alders
Ward 1: Alex Guzhnay, Democrat
Ward 5: Kampton Singh, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 7: Eli Sabin, Democrat
Ward 11: Kurtis Kearney, Democrat
Ward 13: Rosa Ferraro-Santana, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 14: Carmen Flores, Democrat
Sarah Miller, Democrat
Ward 18: Salvatore DeCola, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 19: Kimberly Edwards, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 20: Delphine Clyburn, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 21: Steve Winter, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 22: Jeanette Morrison, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 25: Adam Marchand, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 26: Darryl Brackeen Jr., Democrat (incumbent)
Joshua Van Hoesen, Republican
Ward 27: Richard Furlow, Democrat (incumbent)
Ward 28: Shafiq Abdussabur, Democrat
Ward 30: Honda Smith, Democrat (incumbent)

Board of Education, District 1
Ed Joyner, Democrat